We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexandria Florent. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexandria below.

Alright, Alexandria thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have any thoughts about how to create a more inclusive workplace?

There aren’t very many female tattoo artists. There aren’t very many black/brown tattoo artists. And there aren’t very many black/brown female tattoo artists, let alone tattoo shop owners. One of the main purposes for me opening Flo Tats was to create an environment where people who look like me feel comfortable getting something put on their body forever. The other reason was to create a space that gives people like me the opportunity to share their amazing artwork with the world. In my experience, the tattoo industry has been/is one of the least inclusive industries there is. I want to change that.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Flo Tats is a Black Owned, Woman owned tattoo shop located in the same place as the first ever black owned tattoo shop on Crenshaw Blvd. in Los Angeles. I started getting tattoos when I turned 18. Out of all of the shops I had been to, I never once saw anyone tattooing who looked like me. Because I’ve been an artist my entire life, I had had people tell me that I should be a tattoo artist, but it wasn’t until I noticed this that I actually considered it. I started learning to tattoo at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I’m self taught, so I’d watch videos and practice on myself, fruit, fake skin, and any friends who’d let me. While I was learning, I would always hear “you can’t tattoo color on brown/dark skin,” and through my own learning, I knew this wasn’t true. That assumption was actually just the result of an unwillingness to learn. The tattoo industry is predominantly lead by white individuals tattooing other white individuals. I started my tattoo career and Flo Tats because I wanted people who look like me to have access to the same quality of tattoos – especially color tattoos – that people of lighter skin tones do. In addition, I wanted to give marginalized people an equal opportunity to share their amazing artwork with the world. I am so grateful to be in the position where I’m able to do so.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Flo Tats’ social media presence may not be the largest standing at just over 800 followers, but the growth we’ve seen in just a few months has been very exciting. I’ve built an audience mainly just by being authentic to who I am and what the business stands for. We are open to people of all skin tones, but our audience is mainly comprised of black and brown individuals for the reasons previously mentioned. A lot of the exposure I’ve garnered has come from participating in community events like Black on the Block, where I was one of 200+ black vendors promoting my business. Engaging with the community online and offline is very important to me and makes growing on social media so much easier.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Before I became a tattoo artist and shop owner I was working a 9 to 5 as a sales associate, living in North Carolina. I started this job at the beginning of the pandemic, so I was working remote, staring at a computer screen, sitting behind a desk for 8 hours a day. I quickly grew to hate this. By the 3rd month I had started learning how to tattoo. Around month 6 I felt comfortable enough to start taking clients for small pieces. I had been through all of the trainings and gotten the required documents to do so. I was working 9 to 5 then tattooing 6 to sometimes midnight on weekdays and any time I could on the weekends. I knew at this point I wanted to make tattooing my full time career. Once I hit the 1 year mark at my sales job, I quit. Tattooing was now my full time job. There were moments when business was slow, I had moved to a new city and was figuring out how to build clientele in the area, but it wasn’t long before people heard about me and started reaching out for appointments. I had the help of my boyfriend at the time who picked up the slack on bills when I couldn’t and always encouraged me to keep going when I felt defeated. He would send people from his job to get tattooed by me and would help me market myself in public when I didn’t feel confident to do so for myself. He’s is a huge reason why I’m where I am today. He is actually the reason I dropped everything to move back home to LA to pursue opening a tattoo shop. Coming back home to LA was definitely a huge milestone for me. Flo Tats has always been my brand, but it weren’t for coming home I wouldn’t have founded Flo Tats the tattoo shop. With his support and the support of my family, it only took me one year (which felt like forever at the time) to turn an old gold store into a full blown tattoo studio with 5 artists including myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: Flotats.Booksy.com
• Instagram: @flo.tats

Image Credits
Frida Lucia @Friidalucia on Instagram